Lowest female literacy rate

In Niger, 6.6% of the adult female population (that is females aged over 15) is literate. The rate for Afghanistan was 15% in 1999  but the country is now thought to have a similar rate to Niger. The rate of adult female literacy in Afghanistan is set to fall as the fundamentalist Taliban, which by the end of 1998 controlled most of the country,  banned female attendance at schools and colleges and also bans the teaching of the `three Rs' to females at home. The Taliban regieme fell in 2001, but how this affects the rate is still unknown.